The home screen on a smartphone tends to get much more use than the main interface on a desktop computer. On a Mac, for example, the home screen is almost an irrelevance because the Dock is designed for quick access to often used programs, but on Windows it is still relied on by some who do not make great use of the default taskbar.
On a smartphone you tend to use the home screen for almost every interaction and this changes depending on the platform; on an iPhone it is mainly used to get to your most used apps, on Android and Windows Mobile it is also used to check calendars, widgets and to open apps and on Symbian and BlackBerry it can be a mixture of both, but not always an efficient mixture.
Some people go to extraordinary lengths to make their home screen personal to them and it can become an obsession trying out new themes and colour schemes until they are happy. Ultimately they are never happy though and the process of tweaking the home screen becomes more important than the result. I too have gone through this strange process in the past, but the iPhone has cured me thanks to its lack of customisation abilities. Here is what I currently have set up-
My home screen is made up of 10 apps that I use most often plus 4 more in the dock. These are essential to me every day and thus are not hidden away in folders. Within the folders are specific sets of apps that I also need regular access to, but admittedly some are not absolutely necessary- for some reason I have 10 apps in my Photography folder. My News/Books folder has a wide selection of eBook readers, news gatherers and specific news apps and then there are the Social Networks and Utilities. It’s a never ending collection of apps that attempt to manage every possible thing I do and trying to keep them all at hand is far from easy.
I’m not really sure why I wrote this article, but am curious as to how you manage your home screen and if you have ever obsessed over getting it just right.
I like the Android homescreen the best, with icons, folders and widgets..
On the center page I have the power widget across the top (BT, GPS, WIFI, Brightness), a non default calendar widget in the middle showing the next few days of appoitments, and most used 4 apps at the bottom. Sweeping left takes me to my weather widget, again to media player widget and to the right I have apps and then right again for games..
Ohh and I haven’t changed it around in many months.. some people can be happy despite having a large number of options
I like multiple home screens to provide different points of foci. I also like widgets and shortcuts. Widgets to control the radios and profiles get used the most. I only use 6 of the 7 home screens on my Desire and three on my Dell Streak.
With my iPhone 4 homescreen, I try to avoid folders and only keep essential apps. Folders appear on 2nd screen and further on in games which always follow serious apps screens.
But I also look at positioning of icons so that with my right thumb I can easily tap icons needed the most.
Obsessed? Who’s obsessed? It’s called “optimizing” your smartphone experience. I’m not obsessed. No sir! I can stop anytime I want. Anytime at all. Yep, anytime.
I finally got to a point where I knew how I wanted my home screen to be. But now I have stopped using the Internet on my phone it may need to change. I just haven’t been that interested at all lately for some reason.
I was fine with my setup until this post. Now keep tweaking it tonight.